Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromAli P.

  Date: 12/01/2024

  1 star

  Ali P.

  Date: 12/01/2024

  My autistic son attended for less than a month. We felt as if Montessori Smile gave us false hope by advertising and posting on their website they have an autism specialist in the classroom but still has not arrived in Canada or started. We were also given false hope and felt led on after the staff and owner told us they were here to help and support our son. The phrase "we will look back in a year and laugh at this" was said multiple time to us, making us believe that the center truly meant they wanted to help.
  The owner also requested that we use our families respite hours to provide and pay for 1-1 staffing in their facility. Provincial standards does not allow this as respite is not meant to replace staff in centers. We also brought in a wagon of our on and other items such as our personal mini trampoline to the school, which in turn ended up with our wagon being stolen and never replaced.
  Within 2 weeks of my son being there we felt as if the owner regretted taking on our son despite us making his needs overly abundantly clear prior to even registering.
  We spent the last few days being told he is in and out causing our family a lot of stress. The owner did not even have the common curtacy to contact us directly and apologize for all the miscommunications and let downs.
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  Montessori Smile

  Date: 25/01/2024

  We are so sorry to hear we disappointed a family. We appreciate the feedback and look forward to using it to better our school. Because Montessori Smile is a private childcare facility we do not get any funding from the government for respite workers. Some children require individual aids. The monthly tuition for a child would not cover the wages for this employee and Montessori Smile has no funding to pay for one of these employees either. Although this is different then a government funded facility this is how it is executed when working with a private childcare facility. As advised by our Montessori Teacher with autistic certifications and our ECE 3 Director who is also a trained respite worker, we begin by assessing the child in a home visit. This home visit was executed by our Director who is an ECE 3 and a trained respite worker who currently is employed by *** ***** as well. From there we begin to work with the child in the school as well. Both the Director and the owner communicated to the family that we may require individual support for the child which would need to be applied for but we can't determine that until we begin to work with the child. Montessori Smile currently has autistic children in their care as Montessori program is often recommended for children with any type of special need. All children are different and require different types of support so the needs are determined with time. However, in order to first determine if a child requires additional support we work with the child. From there if it is determined that an additional aid is needed that must be applied for through the family's case worker. Montessori Smile cannot apply for this on the families behalf simply because it is a private childcare facility and regulations and guidelines are different. Our teacher with autistic experience has been delayed by immigration. The visa wait times have tripled and there was no notice given. Both the Director and the owner verbally communicated that we didn't know when she would be arriving and as long as they were comfortable with being in the classroom with our other teachers in the meantime they can begin. Montessori Smile was under the understanding that the family didn't want to be reimbursed for the wagon as the Director asked if we could and was told no. Montessori Smile would be happy to reimburse the family for the wagon and trampoline. The owner clearly communicated that we would love to continue working with their child and we would like to begin an application to apply for a support worker for him as that was our assessment of his needs. During the time that the child was with Montessori Smile our Director who is a trained respite worker dedicated her time directly to this child as that is what was required. She is a trained respite worker. After assessment we determined a one-on-one aid would be advised. It is unfortunate that the government does not treat children coming to private schools the same, but Montessori Smile does not get government funding to hire a dedicated worker, so we have to apply for that through the child's case worker. This was recommended and guided as well through our government coordinator. Montessori Smile would love to continue working with the family and child if after further assessment it is recommended by his therapists and case workers and funding is provided for an aid. We were under the understanding that we were still currently waiting for the application to come through for the child. We are so sorry we disappointed the family. We wish we were able to afford to hire another dedicated employee for this child. We hope we can have the opportunity to work with them again in the future.